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...one of the best things about running is that no matter how fast you've run in the past, running fast in the future does not come easily or with any guarantees.

James Weldon Johnson

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James Weldon Johnson
Age: 67 †
Born: 1871
Born: June 17
Died: 1938
Died: June 26
Author
Composer
Diplomat
Jurist
Lawyer
Novelist
Poet
Politician
Songwriter
Writer
Jacksonville
Florida
J. W. Johnson
Things
Fast
Future
Running
Past
Doe
Best
Come
Guarantees
Matter
Easily

More quotes by James Weldon Johnson

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The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.
James Weldon Johnson
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When one has seen something of the world and human nature, one must conclude, after all, that between people in like stations of life there is very little difference the world over.
James Weldon Johnson
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Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.
James Weldon Johnson
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In the life of everyone there is a limited number of experiences which are not written upon the memory, but stamped there with a die and in the long years after, they can be called up in detail, and every emotion that was stirred by them can be lived through anew these are the tragedies of life.
James Weldon Johnson
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I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.
James Weldon Johnson
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Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville.
James Weldon Johnson
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I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.
James Weldon Johnson
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My mother was kept very busy with her sewing sometimes she would have another woman helping her.
James Weldon Johnson
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The peculiar fascination which the South held over my imagination and my limited capital decided me in favor of Atlanta University so about the last of September I bade farewell to the friends and scenes of my boyhood and boarded a train for the South.
James Weldon Johnson
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The fortress inspired a tremendous confidence. It was the only propeller driven aircraft I have flown that was completely viceless there were no undesirable flight characteristics. The directional stability was excellent and, properly trimmed, the B-17 could be taken off, landed and banked without change of trim.
James Weldon Johnson
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My luck at the gambling table was varied sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals.
James Weldon Johnson
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O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
James Weldon Johnson
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There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.
James Weldon Johnson
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This Great God, Like a mammy bending over her baby, Kneeled down in the dust Toiling over a lump of clay Till He shaped it in His own image.
James Weldon Johnson
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Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways.
James Weldon Johnson
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And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said, O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief.
James Weldon Johnson
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In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.
James Weldon Johnson
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It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.
James Weldon Johnson
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This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.
James Weldon Johnson
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You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.
James Weldon Johnson